


Competition

by JenJo



Series: 52 Short Stories in 52 Weeks [11]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Humour, M/M, Natasha has inside information, Team Bonding, but bonding nevertheless, of course, through betting on Steve and Clint, winterhawk - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-29 00:09:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6351040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JenJo/pseuds/JenJo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It had all started over breakfast that morning. Clint was claiming to be the all round fittest member of the team, a claim which was the culmination of various discussions that morning. Tony claimed that Steve would be the all round fittest. Naturally, this lead to Clint declaring “I can beat Steve in a battle for fitness.”<br/>Which naturally lead to the pair of them running down the stairs of Avengers Tower.<br/>Naturally.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Competition

**Author's Note:**

> Week 12- 'A story about a contest or competition.'

When he would ultimately look back on the chain of events which led to this moment later, Tony would realise that it was all Clint’s fault.

The Avengers (Steve, Tony, Clint, Natasha, Thor, Bruce, Sam, and Bucky) stood on the gym floor of Avengers Tower. Steve and Clint stood in running gear, and were surrounded by the others. 

“You know you have no chance here Barton, don’t you?”

“Come on Stark, have a little faith.”

“Yeah, but this isn’t about faith. No one is backing you here.”

“No one? You sure about that?”

Tony looked around, before offering Clint a smile. “No one.”

Clint put a hand to his chest, faking a wounded expression. “You wound me, good sir. I will simply have to prove you all wrong.”

“Honey, you have challenged Steve to a series of challenges, many of which are simply competitions of pure strength,” Bucky put a hand on Clint’s shoulder. “No one will think any less of you if you walk away now.”

“I will,” Tony called mockingly, before dodging a hand from Natasha. (Barely; she let him dodge it.)

“No one who matters will care.”

Clint gave Bucky a smile. “I’ll be fine, you’ll see.”

Bucky shook his head, walking to stand next to Tony. “Care to lay the rules, Stark?”

“With pleasure, Barnes. Barton and Rogers are to compete in seven challenges, each having been suggested for them. The first, from Mr Wilson, is to run from here, to the bottom of the tower, and back. Simple race, first one back is the winner. Any questions?”

Steve and Clint both shook their heads. 

“Alright. Gentlemen, if you will take your places at the start line.” 

Steve and Clint stood side by side in the doorway. Steve turned to Clint, offering a hand.

“Good luck, Clint.”

Clint smiled, shaking Steve’s hand. “You too, Steve.”

Both men then focused in front of them.

“Alright. FRIDAY, countdown please.”

[On your marks], FRIDAY intoned; Steve and Clint bent forward, before a starter’s gun sounded. Both men ran forward, Steve easily pulling in front of Clint as they ran around the corner towards the stairwell.

 

~~~~~

It had all started over breakfast that morning. Clint was claiming to be the all round fittest member of the team, a claim which was the culmination of various discussions that morning. Tony claimed that Steve would be the all round fittest. Naturally, this lead to Clint declaring “I can beat Steve in a battle for fitness.”

Which naturally lead to the pair of them running down the stairs of Avengers Tower.

Naturally.

 

~~~~~

 

“FRIDAY, if you would be so kind.”

The gym wall was used to display a live feed of the two runners, with the feed split in two. On the left, Steve was shown to be making good time descending the stairs. He was already half way down the tower.

Clint, on the other hand…

“Is he in the elevator?” Tony asked.

[It would seem so, Boss] FRIDAY answered.

“Well, it isn’t exactly against the rules,” Bruce observed. The group turned to look at him, to which Bruce just shrugged. “You said they had to get to the bottom and back, didn’t limit how they did that.”

They watched Clint, who was doing a dance as the elevator arrived back at the gym floor.

He jogged into the gym, holding his arms wide. “So, how’d I go?”

The group stared at him, shaking their heads. 

“You cheated.”

“He didn’t cheat Stark, he found a loophole in your rules.”

Tony shook his head, turning to Bucky. “How about Steve?”

“It’s his fault for not thinking of it first,” Clint answered, getting a drink of water and watching Steve on the wall. 

“Hey, I lost track of Clint. Where…” Steve spoke as he jogged into the gym before trailing off and staring at Clint. “How?”

Clint turned around, and smiled at Steve. “Hey, nice of you to join us.”

“How?” Steve stood frozen, unable to comprehend what had happened. 

“Ha, I broke him,” Clint walked over, and put a hand on Steve’s shoulder. “No hard feelings, I’m sure you’ll make it up in the next challenge.”

Steve shook his head, before turning to Tony. “What’s next?”

“Push ups, courtesy of Bruce. Simple, but sure to give you some points. No offence Barton.”

Clint shrugged, moving towards the centre of the gym. “No problem Stark. Kinda figured this round would go to Steve, I’m just hoping to push him a bit.”

“Big talk Barton,” Steve walked to stand opposite Clint, raising an eyebrow at him. “You reckon you can push me?”

Clint shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Rules are simple,” Tony walked over, and looked pointedly at Clint. “Arms bend to ninety degrees, nose to the ground, then back up. First to drop, loses.”

“Simple enough,” Clint nodded, then dropped to the ground, looking up at Steve from his position. “Ready?”

Steve rolled his eyes, before dropping down.

“And begin.”

The pair kept pace with each other, exchanging verbal jabs every twenty or so.

After the first hundred, Bruce left, claiming to have experiments to check on. (Everyone knew he was bored, and just didn’t want to appear rude.)   
After a hundred and fifty, Sam and Natasha began organising a betting pool for the remaining challenges.

By two hundred and seventy, everyone had joined in the betting. (Chores were the currency of choice, as were dares.)

By five hundred, everyone was either sitting or lying on the ground. Only Bucky and Thor were still watching with any interest; Natasha and Sam were playing poker, and Bucky was pretty sure Tony had fallen asleep.

At seven hundred and fifty four, Clint dropped to the ground and rolled onto his back. 

“I give, you can have the point.”

Steve went to eight hundred, before coming into a seated position. “Thank you for your generosity, Barton. Tony, we’re done.”

Tony sat up, looking at the pair and yawning. “Lovely. Who won?”

“I did.”

“And how many?”

“Clint dropped after seven hundred and fifty four, I got to eight hundred.”

Tony nodded at this information, before blinking and turning to Natasha. “How?”

Natasha smiled at Tony. “You’ll never know. I look forward to the use of your cars for the week.”

“You bet on me?” Steve asked. Natasha shook her head.

“She bet on me” Clint supplied, still lying on his back. “She learnt a long time ago to not bet against me.”

“But how could she know that you would stop somewhere between seven hundred and eight hundred?”

Clint sat up, and shrugged at Tony. “She knows everything, Tony. I don’t know what to tell you.”

Natasha smiled at Tony, before looking to Steve and Clint. “Round three, gentlemen?”

 

~~~~~

 

Round three was a memory test, suggested by Natasha. Of course, it was no ordinary memory test. She showed them all a twenty minute film, before getting Steve and Clint to complete a question sheet devised by her. 

(Questions included: ‘What colour eyes did the third person to appear on screen have?’

‘Which character appeared after the one whose shirt was buttoned to the second top button?’

‘Which character was wearing white socks?’)   
Needless to say, Steve’s serum-enhanced memory won out in the end.

Round four was a Bucky-designed sooting test, using weapons that neither competitor was familiar with. Comprising a mixture of still targets and moving, and times of low visibility. Nevertheless, Clint won.

At two wins each, Tony brought out the Stark Kart challenge. He had designed five new, never before seen courses, complete with invisible pot holes in the tracks. To the surprise of Tony, Steve won that challenge by the barest of margins.

(Tony now owed the use of his cars to Natasha, Sam, Thor, Bruce, and Bucky. They all knew better than to bet against Steve in a videogame.)

Thor’s challenge was perhaps the most difficult, at least to Clint’s mind. Thor had produced an ancient book, written entirely in an ancient earth language. The challenge was which of the pair could reproduce the most pages in half an hour, with the least amount of errors. 

After this challenge, the pair both dropped their heads on the table. Of all the challenges thus far, this was the most physically draining.

After conferring with FRIDAY, Thor announced Clint the winner. This only surprised Sam.

“I honestly thought Steve would win that one.”

“Clint has spent some time in some shady parts, where being able to copy someone else’s handwriting was a useful skill,” Tony explained. When Clint raised his head to look at him, Tony shrugged. “What? I listen to what you say.”

“Okaay,” Clint sat up properly, stretching his arms over his head. “So the score’s three three. What’s our tie breaker?”

“Huh,” Tony looked around, pointing at each Avenger as he went. “We’ve all contributed one. Hmm… FRIDAY, got a challenge for the pair?”

[How about a chess match, Boss?]

“Chess,” Steve deadpanned, looking at Tony. “Really?”

Clint raised an eyebrow at Steve. “What, think you’ll lose?”

“Just seems simple, compared to the other challenges,” Steve shrugged.

“It was FRIDAY’s choice, and she says a chess match. FRIDAY, if you would give us a holographic board?”

A board displayed on the table in front of Steve and Clint. 

“Alright team, we’re at our final challenge. This one determines the overall winner, so: final bets? I’ll take Steve to win, offering up unlimited coffee for a month.”

“Steve, and I’ll cook for a month.” (Bruce, who had returned to watch the final challenge.)   
“Steve, and I’ll bring in three boxes of my mum’s cookies a day for a month.” (Sam. His mother’s cookies were legendary in the tower.)

“Steve, and I shall offer a month of service as butler.” (Thor. They had discovered that he was great at running errands for them. He didn’t mind.)

Natasha and Bucky had shared a look before offering their bets.

“Clint, and I will relinquish my claim to Tony’s cars for the month.” (“That’s not fair, only Tony gets something out of it.”

“Shut up Wilson, I accept your wager Natasha.”)

“Clint, and I promise to keep the victory sex to minimal volume.” (Bucky had looked at the team with a raised eyebrow, daring any of them to question his wager. No one did.)

“Are you all done?” Steve, who was watching them with his head in his hand, asked. At the nods, he turned to Clint. “Good luck.”

“You too.”

Steve made the first move, beginning a two hour chess match. The length surprised those who had bet a Steve win.

After two hours and one hundred and eleven moves, Clint trapped Steve.

“Checkmate,” he smiled. Steve blinked at the board, before offering Clint his hand.

“Good match. Well done.”

“Steve lost,” Sam said, looking at Tony with shock on his face. “Steve Rogers, greatest tactical mind of the century, lost a game of chess to  _ Clint _ ?”

“I know,” Tony shook his head. “I know. I can’t explain it either.”

“I promise to enjoy your coffee responsibly,” Natasha smiled at Tony.

“And I promise to keep the sex to a minimal volume,” Bucky smiled as he got up and gave Clint a kiss. “Well done.”

“Thanks,” Clint smiled at the team. “I’m sure you’ll all pay up to the appropriate parties.”

“But how?”

Steve shook his head, and went to the kitchen to get a drink. “Don’t question it Tony. It happened, accept it and move on. Dinner anyone?”

“I’ve got it,” Bruce got up to start going through the cupboards for ingredients.

“But how did you two know?” Tony asked, pointing at Natasha and Bucky.

Natasha just looked at Tony. “I’ve known Clint a very long time. I know what he can and cannot do.”

“And do you really think that I’d bet against the man I’m sleeping with?” Bucky asked, arms wrapped around Clint’s shoulders and chin resting on Clint’s head.

“Smart man,” Clint commented, smiling at Tony.

“FRIDAY, make a note: next time any of us think it’s a good idea to place bets on a competition between members of the team, remind us that it’s a bad idea and shouldn’t be done.”

[Memo created for you to ultimately ignore, Boss.]

“Not even my AI sides with me,” Tony shook his head as he thought about how best to protect his cars during the next month. “This really is all Clint’s fault.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading that piece of ridiculousness. Not what I had originally planned on writing, but oh well.  
> See you all next week.
> 
> -Chapter three of 'Sunset' is being worked on.  
> -'I don't wanna date anyone', the fake relationship Winterhawk fic which holds the working title of 'Tropey Tropefest', is being worked on, so expect to see that updated soon.


End file.
